Urostomy operations involve removal of the bladder and provide the patient with a stoma, a small outlet (ordinarily made from the small intestine) which passes through the skin of the abdomen. To collect urine which drips more or less constantly from it, conventional urostomy bags are worn beneath the patient's clothing. These are relatively flat plastic bags which are adhered to the skin and may stay in place for several days, being emptied meanwhile through a valve at the tapered bottom of the bag. A typical urostomy bag has, for adhesion to the skin, a flexible base plate or flange with a central opening which fits about the stoma. Such flanges are somewhat rounded, ranging in extent from about 31/2" to 5", to project inward from the adjacent wall of the bag.
During the post-operative period, patients are taught to use these bags, usually with increasing success. However, even an occasional event of leakage along the border between the adhered flange and the skin adds to the psychological damage already suffered by the urostomy patient. To even the brave and methodical patient, the problems of odor, leakage and skin irritation will require attention for the remainder of his life. For most patients the psychological impact is a restraint on normal physical, social and business activity, and even patients who learn to use urostomy bags with great success experience occasional failure.
To remove a urostomy bag adhered to the skin and replace it securely requires more time than a busy successful user may have available, a fact which may lead him into taking chances of leakage after the bag has been in place for several days. Hence even one who uses a urostomy bag successfully is faced from time to time by the prospect of its failure.